North Carolina Mason
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1292638
L
ate one night this summer, along the old
farm road on the Masonic Home for
Children campus, a tree died.
e oak had been dying for years, for longer
than anyone can remember. Nobody knows
how old it was. Could have been 50; could
have been 150.
Now, a tree might just be a tree.
But this one was different. is
one was an old friend, a reliable
campus landmark and touchstone
for generations of MHCO kids.
So there was mourning after
the tree in the wee hours of that
unremarkable night simply let go,
dropping its ancient branches in
exhaustion and giving way to time,
gravity and nature.
When a tree falls in the forest,
does it make a sound?
Yes. And it makes an impact.
is tree, one of hundreds
of oaks that have guarded the
MHCO campus and residents for decades,
was truly a family tree.
Ask any of the kids who grew up "under the
oaks," as alumni like to say.
One of those kids – a man of years and
experience now – talks about the trees as if
they were his childhood friends.
"Under any of the trees there, we would
marvel at their age and size," says Amos
Speight, who now serves on the MHCO board
of directors. "Every tree meant something to
us. It was a place to sit under, to eat an apple
under. e trees really had a comforting feeling
for us … and it was something that meant
permanence, something that meant stability."
e death of just any old tree normally
would have gone unnoticed, but
this death was reported during
an MHCO committee meeting.
Administrator Kevin Otis broke the
news, and you could hear the sad
reaction on the conference call.
"What was so special about this
tree?" I asked.
Amos didn't hesitate to talk about
it, then Kevin chimed in.
"ese trees mean so much to the
kids and the staff here," he said. ey
have been on campus so long, their
personalities have come through and
won friends.
He explained that for many
MHCO kids, permanence and stability are not
the norm in their lives.
ey have found that stability in the family
cottages protected by the strong branches of
the oaks. eir presence – even the leaves they
shed by the truckload in the fall – are part of
life at the children's home, part of the scenery.
Page 4 The North Carolina Mason September/October 2020
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of North Carolina, 2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27608.
ird class postage paid at Oxford, NC 27565.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to e North Carolina Mason,
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Grand Master
P. Shaun Bradshaw
Board Of Publication
Kenneth Wayne Lambert, Chairman
Adam Cloninger
Dwight Decoskey
Stan Dodd
omas VanEtten
Editor
Beth Grace
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